Contract nurses in AP demand regularization of services, gross salary

Contractual health workers, including nurses and laboratory technicians, took part in a protest at the Government General Hospital in Vijayawada on Wednesday. | Photo credit: KVS Giri

More than 200 contractual employees, mostly nurses, gathered on the premises of the new Government General Hospital in Vijayawada on Wednesday after the state government informed them that their demands for regularization of services and 100% gross pay could not be met.

Two months ago, contractual employees working in the medical field staged a dharna in Vijayawada after which Health, Medical and Family Welfare Minister Satya Kumar Yadav assured that he would come up with a solution within a month.

In September, JAC members of AP Medical and Health Contractors employees were summoned to a meeting. The health workers informed them that their demands for grant of various leaves, structured transfer policy and regular recruitment of mid-level medical staff had been considered and some of them had been accepted in principle, the government could not meet their demand for regularization and payment of gross wages.

Officials, according to sources, said the government was unable to bear the additional expenditure arising from the two demands, citing the current financial situation of the state. Following the negative response to their main demand, the JAC has declared a Maha Dharna across the state from Tuesday.

“How long can we remain silent when our colleagues, the rank and file employees, are getting all the benefits and higher salary while we are getting lower salary for the same work,” asked a nurse from GGH, Vijayawada. Contract nurses get ₹38,000, while regular employees get higher salaries, including benefits like childcare allowances, hazard and night shifts, PF, paid leave, among others.

Another nurse, Swetha (name changed), who works at a primary health center in NTR district, explained how she had hoped for years that things would change. “Every time the government changed, we hoped that the new regime would listen to us. But all the governments have disappointed us,” said Swetha, who has been in the field for 20 years.

Despite having considered quitting many times due to the increased workload, she says she continued working because she hoped her services would be regularized. Government work is very important to her and her family. “My father was a policeman and he wanted me to be a civil servant as well. But I have spent most of my life toiling in a job that is not even appreciated and the dream of regularization seems far away now,” she said. Pointing out the dire situation, Swetha said she even discouraged her daughter from studying medicine.

Like Swetha, most of the contract staff nurses in the state have been rendering their services for years. JAC head and head nurse at Vijayawda GGH Padma pointed out that the last recruitment of nurses from the tribal staff took place in 2010. Since then, all nursing graduates either join the private sector or work as contract employees in government hospitals, hoping for regularization.

Ms. Padma said the agitations would continue across the state until the government responded positively to the two main demands. The JAC chairman said that if regularization of all 15,000 contract employees at once is not possible, the government should take it up at least in terms of seniority and if that is also not possible, it should pay gross wages.

Published – 7 Oct 2026 20:42 IST